If Orwell had written an allegory of capitalism, we’re sure his vision would have included Benjamin Bankes.
Jump over the original post to leave your caption for Ben’s appearance at the New York City Marathon. We’ll take submissions through the end of the day tomorrow.
Related Posts
Huron Consulting Beats the Numbers, Cooked Books and a Bunch of Other Shadiness Notwithstanding
If you’re an accountant and you see a company’s name in the same sentence as “accounting irregularities”, “alleged cooking of the books”, or “SEC investigation”, your likely advice to any person would be to run away from said company like it was a band of lepers.
This is just conventional wisdom, nothing ground breaking. However, since Huron Consulting reported big second quarter numbers, the stock price is up more than 30%.
Now some of this is short sellers getting burned but according to one analyst quoted by Reuters, some investors may be going long because of “confidence in the underlying business”.
We’re not too crazy about the “underlying business” for a lot of reasons:
1. The Company said in a filing that they are likely going to take a goodwill impairment charge that will put it in noncompliance with a financial covenant of its credit agreement.
2. It’s worried about “‘reputational issues’ that may affect the company’s ability to retain its senior managers and attract new talent and new business”.
3. Can’t predict the outcome of the SEC investigations or private lawsuits (P. Dubya take note).
4. They warned that their current numbers may not be legit since the new management has no idea what the hell else is out there in the way of kickbacks payments made to Huron Management, questionable allocated billable hours (but don’t worry, this won’t affect client billings) or anything else for that matter that may call for another restatement of its results.
5. The whole Arthur Andersen connection creeps people out.
Far be it from us to speculate on a company’s future but this place seems doomed. We might just listen to tomorrow’s earnings call to see if there’s anything worth mentioning but in the meantime, put your money in…WTFK?
Huron Consulting fights to stay alive [Greg Burns/Chicago Tribune]
Footnotes: WhatsApp Indeed; Accounting Games; Ex-Madoff Aide Has No Idea What You Are Talking About | 02.19.14
Things still suck for lawyers, they might just suck less than they have lately [ATL] […]
We Picture the Trophies as Gold Plated 10-Key Calculators
You may have noticed that we reference a lot of stories from across the pond. Simply, it appears that the British seem to be a little more concerned with accounting world than us here in the States, where we’re virtually ignored at every turn (except when poop + fan).
The Brits are so enamored with accounting, in fact, that Accountancy Age, bless their hearts, has an awards ceremony.
The awards have their own website with a countdown clock, a gallery with last year’s winners, oh and you’re allowed to vote on Employer of the Year and Personality of the Year. Other awards include Audit Team of the Year, Tax Team of the Year, and Accountant of the Year.
The dream, continued, after the jump
There’s a lot of directions we could go with this but this has to be the most obvious case of accountant self-aggrandizement we’ve ever seen. We can’t even fathom the idea of hundreds of bean counters in tuxedos and cocktail dresses accepting hideous trophies under the pretense that the work done demands such recognition.
Perhaps since accountants are so used to an environment devoid of gratitude, Accountancy Age thought they would go out of their way to start showing some appreciation. WTFK really?
In any case, we would request Accountancy Age to assign us as a Joan Rivers role of sorts in order to liven up the bean counter Oscars. Since Accountancy Age’s list is a little ho-hum, come up with some of your own ideas for awards and their nominees in the comments.
Accountancy Age Awards 2009 shortlist announced [Accountancy Age]